Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, posted the latest ad from Toyoya’s Hybrid Synergy Drive. While loyal reader’s will know I’m not a fan of automotive ads, this one is different for a few reasons:

First, there’s no car. Really, no one has designed a car that is different enough to require us seeing it again and again in a commercial (except maybe Tesla).

and Second, this ad took an incredible amount of work and practice. You can see this was all shot in one take, which means hours and hours of coordination, planning, and rehearsal. I doubt that is what’s happening in the “professional driver, closed course” ads.

Finally, this ad is a really good way to show off the hybrid concept. I mean everyone gets what a hybrid means, but it is still fun to see it in a real world application. Really well done, although I hope for their sake they don’t have to shoot a sequel!

So I’m sure you’ve seen the new Renault “Ballet” commercial. If not, here it is on YouTube:

Reader’s of this blog know I love to look at and dissect auto advertising. I have no clue why, I just find it fascinating. There are few other industries where the types of commercials vary so widely in their artistic quality and message. You start with incredible, thought-provoking stuff like the “Go Beyond” spot for Land Rover, to total push-type crap like Billy Fuccillo:

I enjoy him for comedic purposes, and he has definitely blanketed the East Coast with his repetitive and, ahem, inventive spots. Guess it goes to show that if you have enough money, you can get your name out there big-time.

My point is, this Renault ad has really caught a lot of people’s attention lately, and I started thinking – what if all car ads were like this? But specifically, what if everything related to cars went something like this.

My main client is a large, American-based Auto Insurance company. And up till now, they have always played it conservative, with direct mail, basic online presence, and fairly common-style television spots. But I’d love to see them take a bit of their budget and move it towards something off the beaten path, something totally different and eye-catching.

Looking at Auto Insurance, it’s hard to show the product working. But how about a new look at car damage, the way the ballet ad did here for Renault. How can the interaction between the car owner and their insurance company become a dance, not a cold or troublesome experience? It occurs to me that I’m not just looking at the advertising, but the product and customer touchpoint design as well. Maybe that means I’m on to something…

The new ads by Hyundai are pretty interesting. I first read about it over at Three Minds and I agree with most of what they wrote. These ads are very well shot, very uncluttered, and almost soothing on the eye. I’m not crazy about “think about it” as a tag, but I understand what they are aiming for. Hyundai wants to compete in the crowded car industry, and wants people to “think about” what car they buy, not just blindly choose from the big brand options that are laid out before them. This kinda reminds me of the Saturn debut ads that won all kinds of awards years ago. “A different kind of company, a different kind of car” is much better than “think about it”, but the idea is much the same.

Automotive ads have been the center of several of my posts. I think its safe to say that for a long time, really bad car ads dominated the industry. In some ways, this is still true. Billy Fucillo has become a cult figure on the East Coast, mostly for the millions of dollars he spends on amazingly annoying ads. But there is a “wind of change” (always wanted to say that). It really started with the BMW Films years ago, which I believe were designed by Fallon.

Increasingly, car ads have trended towards the ‘film’ category. Aiming to make cinematic beauty. This obviously is much more exciting to watch in both printed and video advertisements. A great example is the “Go Beyond” ad by Land Rover. I wrote an entire post on it here. I’m not much a numbers researcher, but I would love to know the effect these ads have had on car sales. Because although we might enjoy the ad, if it doesn’t influence behavior in any way, then it was just a pretty film and not much more.

UPDATE: Adrants has posted a Mazda ad that shows everything I hate about automobile advertising. Check it out here and on Youtube